Thunderbird Overhaul

After three and half months of working on 'Manta Ray', my T-bird sailboat, she is finally back in the water.    As any boat owning person understands,  there was much, much more work to be done than anticipated.   I had her out of the water in Shelter Island boat yard for the winter.   Periodically, I would check her out and noticed water in the bildge.  I couldn't really figure out where the water was coming from,  so I just pumped out the water and  added a few more tarps and hoped for the best.  I thought that the work my friend Albert and I had done the previous summer had solved the rot and areas where water could get in.  How wrong I was!

When we got back to work at the end of April, we ended up replacing the transom which was wet and de-laminating the glass as well as a section at the bow.  The rudder needed work as it was chewed up by the outboard motor  (something that happens when, if not careful, the motor kicks upward when put into reverse).  The starboard side of the deck, which we had worked on last summer, had a cancer-like rot that went several feet down along the hull. Several other smaller surprises came out of the woodwork.  I had to grind off the entire cockpit area, down to the wood as parts had de-laminated.  We are both perfectionists and as the saying goes... if you are going to do the job, might as well do it right.  It was going to be a lot of work, using up all of my free time and putting a hold on my social life for a couple of months. 

Whatever the material and construction of your boat, there will always be different problems. Wooden boats are  very time consuming to fix and maintain.  The positive side however is that you can easily cut out the bad patch and replace it.  My boat is essentially made from marine plywood that is covered with fiberglass.   I learned fairly quickly how to mix resin and apply mat glass and I must have gone through  6+  gallons of bondo putty.  I had to buy several tools. The ones that paid off for themselves the quickest and most used were the grinder, the orbital sander and my trusty old Leatherman multi-tool.

Another aspect of this boat restoration that was cool was the recycling of materials.   Several times I used plywood from construction sites that was destined for the trash bin.  One day, while throwing stuff away in the boat yard dumpster, we came across cut up pieces from an entire deck of a large sail boat, all teak strips, on teak plywood.  As I needed to re-do the three hatches on my boat, Albert had the brilliant idea of using this wood,  making an outside frame using peeled off strips.   In all, it took probably 4 days on those hatches, but they look amazing.  To buy new teak would not only have been difficult to find but would have cost a fortune.

Once the main patches on the deck and hull were done, and all of the hardware on the deck was taken off (teak toe rails and hand rails that were brought home, sanded and varnished) it was time to paint.  Albert is the expert in that department and he decided to go with spraying a two part epoxy paint.  The actual painting is fairly quick, it's all the prep time that takes forever.  That included coats of primer,  sanding, more sanding, masking with tape and paper...  The rainy weather in June was not cooperating and we had to do it at night as some people in the boatyard would probably be worried about spraying in the open.  We had covered neighbouring boats with tarps so all was good.  Working in a boatyard, you meet all your neighbours, working on their boats.  A very interesting collection of individuals all with their stories.  Everyone was really helpful and often lent us use of tools, compressor etc.

After all that work  and costs,  I wanted to make sure my boat would be insured.  To do that however, your boat needs to be surveyed by a marine surveyor.  In other words,  someone comes by and checks your boat out completely to make sure it's sea worthy.  Certain issues,  like a sealed box with an outlet for the propane tank need to be to a certain standard.  It was a bit stressful trying to finish it all and I kept pushing back the date of when I was going to go back into the water.  Finally,  it all happened and the motoring up the South Arm of the Fraser (against the strong current and amongst massive tankers and tug boats) to the North Arm,  (now with the fast current) and back to False Creek took just over 4 hours.  Albert, who lives on his boat, had anchored in the river and came back with me the same time.  A gorgeous sunset when we finally got back to the ocean from the delta.  It felt good to be back on the water.  Went for a sail a few days later and the Manta Ray looks great.  Time to enjoy the rest of summer.